Memo to politicians: Stand up to King Coal

Last week President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency released new carbon regulations for new U.S. power plants, meaning that citizens across the country and we in the state of Kentucky will now enjoy new safeguards against coal-burning plants. Carbon pollution is the leading contributor to climate disruption, and is linked to life-threatening air pollution like smog, which triggers asthma attacks.

Louisville Gas and Electric and Duke Energy operate four such carbon-emitting plants within a 60-mile radius of Jefferson County. In recent years, I have joined thousands of Jefferson County residents who have risen up to protest the harmful effects of emissions from coal-burning power plants and toxic coal ash. We deserve protection from the harmful effects of coal.

In 1990, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell voted for amendments to the Clean Air Act which authorized the EPA to regulate air pollution. Six years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court directed the EPA to start enforcing these environmental regulations. But now McConnell and other politicians want to strip the EPA of this authority. Meanwhile, Kentucky residents are living with water that is polluted, breathing air that is unhealthy, and watching as our mountains are destroyed before our very eyes through devastating mountain-top removal coal mining.

As an indigenous person, I hold the Appalachian Mountains to be sacred. My people have been here for thousands of years. Yet somehow many elected officials in Kentucky have assumed that our mountains, rivers, streams and forests were for the taking, there for the plunder. Now we find our forests destroyed, our waters inundated with poisonous mercury, lead, selenium and other harmful substances. We can no longer eat fish from our waters without fear of contamination from this pollution.

One percent of Kentucky jobs are in the coal fields, but 13 percent of Kentuckians suffer from asthma.

Coal depletes us of health and of opportunities.

It is not the beacon of prosperity as McConnell has heralded it for years.

Rather, burning coal only gives us a head start in the race to the bottom. Kentucky remains one of the poorest states in the nation. We deserve a future that preserves our mountains, our air, and our water while protecting public health.

McConnell is dragging his feet and clinging to the past while good jobs installing wind turbines and solar panels head to neighboring states. We need a champion that will stand up for public health and who will provide a path for the people of Kentucky to take part in the growing clean energy economy that no longer needs dirty, outdated coal.

Kentucky politicians, we call on you to stand up to King Coal and support strong carbon regulation.

Do it for Kentucky’s asthma sufferers. Do it for our children who are threatened by poisonous mercury contamination in our water.

Do it for the Ohio River, the Green River and the Kentucky River.

Do it for young people who would like a job in the national clean energy industry.

Do it for the generations to come who will want to visit and live in our mountains and forests.

Do it for Kentucky.

Thomas Pearce is the Sierra Club regional organizer for Western Kentucky Beyond Coal Campaign.